#VotegateUK
17th October 2016
Below is an email addressed to Director of Applied I F Ltd, Geoffrey Stansfield, from Frank Pike, Counter Terrorism Policing Standards Manager, based at the College of Policing. One of the functions of the UK Police is to act upon instances of criminal vote rigging and electoral fraud, in conjunction with the UK Electoral Commission.
In this instance, APP stands for Authorised Professional Practice and refers to the “Policing Elections APP”.
Here is a full description of this Authorised Professional Practice
| From: Frank Pike <Frank.Pike@college.pnn.police.uk> Date: 7 January 2016 at 17:03:32 GMT To: Geoffrey Stansfield Subject: Policing Elections APP Dear Mr Stansfield, I have been passed your details by a colleague, Patricia Hughes. I have also been passed, in confidence, your email correspondence regarding alleged voting fraud and concerns regarding the current process / systems for identifying and tackling this issue. To introduce myself, I was, in a previous role, responsible for the development and publication of Policing Elections APP. I still have some responsibilities in this area, albeit my involvement is more around maintenance of the content in partnership with the National Policing Lead (ACC Gary Cann) and the Electoral Commission. I am not a practitioner nor expert in this field of policing (we acted as facilitators to bring together the expertise in this area of policing). In terms of the issues you raise…. With regards to the allegations of voting fraud, my advice would be to report your concerns and findings to your local force in the first instance. You may already plan to do this as I believe you’re meeting your local force in the near future? In terms of the process for introducing new systems / models / amending the APP… The content (including amendments) is signed off by the National Policing Lead. I meet periodically with his staff officer and members of the Electoral Commission to discuss any APP content issues / suggested changes which require attention. Since the publication of the APP, we have only had to make minor amends (eg, changes to contact details). What you are proposing sounds like a fundamental change to process and policy. In terms of progressing, I would suggest that your model would need to be tested in terms of application and efficacy compared to current methods. If you are agreeable, I can raise this with Mr Cann’s staff officer and my contacts at the Electoral Commission and maybe we could collectively work through next steps? Best wishes, Frank Frank Pike Counter Terrorism Policing Standards Manager |
Wirral In It Together 